Study provides evidence that loving-kindness meditation slows cellular aging
In new research published in Psychoneuroendocrinology scientists have shown that loving-kindness meditation has a positive impact at the cellular level. The study examined how different types of meditation influenced telomere length, an indicator of physiological aging.
Telomeres are the end caps of DNA on our chromosomes, which help in DNA replication and get shorter over time.
“Chronological age and biological age are not identical. The former is measured in years, whereas the latter is often indexed by telomere length,” the authors of the new study explained. “Telomeres progressively shorten with cell division (i.e., aging) in general, but may also be replenished, or lengthened, by the enzyme telomerase.”
For their 12-week long study, the researchers recruited 176 participants between 35-64 years old from Durham and Orange County of North Carolina. All of the participants reported having little to no meditation experience.
The participants were randomly assigned to a 6-week loving-kindness meditation workshop, a 6-week mindfulness meditation workshop, or a waitlist control group. To measure telomere length, the researchers collected blood samples from the participants at the beginning and end of the study.
While the mindfulness meditation workshop helped the participants to cultivate a nonjudgmental attitude and focus on the present moment, the loving-kindness meditation workshop helped the participants to cultivate warm and friendly feelings towards others.
Overall, telomere length tended to shorten for everyone. “However, the daily practice of loving-kindness meditation appeared to buffer against that attrition,” the researchers said. Participants in the loving-kindness group “showed no significant telomere shortening over time.”
“Whereas participants in the mindfulness group, on average, showed significant telomere shortening over time, those changes were intermediate between the loving-kindness meditation and waitlist control groups,” the researchers added.
The study is not the first to find a relationship between meditation and telomere length.
Research published in the journal Cancer in 2014 found that telomeres maintained their length in breast cancer survivors who practiced mindfulness meditation. Additionally, a 2018 study in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity found that telomere length actually increased in meditation retreat participants after three weeks.
But the new study was the first to compare loving-kindness meditation and mindfulness meditation.
The underlying mechanism that links meditation and the aging process is still unclear. The participants provided daily emotion reports throughout the study, but changes in positive and negative emotions had no relationship to changes in telomere length.
By ERIC W. DOLAN August 24, 2019 https://www.psypost.org/2019/08/study-provides-evidence-that-loving-kindness-meditation-slows-cellular-aging-54316
Loving-kindness meditation slows biological aging in novices: Evidence from a 12-week randomized controlled trial
Khoa D.Le Nguyen a, JueLin b, Sara B.Algoe a, Mary M.Brantley c, Sumi L.Kim d, JeffreyBrantley ce, SharonSalzberg f, Barbara L.Fredrickson a
a Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB #3270, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
b Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, University of California, 600 16th St, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
c Duke Integrative Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
d Office of Religious Life, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
e Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
f Insight Meditation Society, Barre, MA, USA
Received 18 January 2019, Revised 10 May 2019, Accepted 14 May 2019, Available online 20 May 2019.
Highlights
- Over 12 weeks, loving-kindness meditation buffered telomere attrition.
- Telomere length decreased in the mindfulness group and the control group.
- The loving-kindness group showed less telomere attrition than the control group.
Abstract
Combinations of multiple meditation practices have been shown to reduce the attrition of telomeres, the protective caps of chromosomes (Carlson et al., 2015). Here, we probed the distinct effects on telomere length (TL) of mindfulness meditation (MM) and loving-kindness meditation (LKM). Midlife adults (N = 142) were randomized to be in a waitlist control condition or to learn either MM or LKM in a 6-week workshop. Telomere length was assessed 2 weeks before the start of the workshops and 3 weeks after their termination. After controlling for appropriate demographic covariates and baseline TL, we found TL decreased significantly in the MM group and the control group, but not in the LKM group. There was also significantly less TL attrition in the LKM group than the control group. The MM group showed changes in TL that were intermediate between the LKM and control groups yet not significantly different from either. Self-reported emotions and practice intensity (duration and frequency) did not mediate these observed group differences. This study is the first to disentangle the effects of LKM and MM on TL and suggests that LKM may buffer telomere attrition.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306453019300010
